Despite the challenges posed by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine, the UP Diliman (UPD) College of Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD) was able to successfully host the 10th International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD) Asia Pacific Biennial Conference at the CSWCD and other key venues in the University.
Nearly 50 international delegates from the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and North America were among the more than 200 participants in the two-day conference, with the theme The Fifth Industrial Revolution Amidst Multifaceted Disruptions: Harnessing the Power of Social Development.
According to the organizers, the rapidly changing and technologically advanced world is on the verge of a polycrises. In light of this, the conference theme centered “on how social development responds to the multifaceted disruptions brought about by these simultaneous and interrelated crises.” The event also displayed “the role of social development in creating social innovations and effective pathways towards the eradication of poverty and inequality.”
In her message, CSWCD Dean Lenore Polotan-Dela Cruz said the conference theme highlights the need “to critically interrogate and challenge how ‘development’ is dominantly conceived by governments, institutions, and the powerful elites who rule the world.”
Polotan-Dela Cruz hopes the conference will contribute to the participants’ “nuanced understanding of the new development imperatives fostered by the fifth industrial revolution.”
The organizers added that CSWCD’s hosting the conference is “an opportune time to the advancement of social development theory and practice in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region.”
Meanwhile, ICSD President Manohar Pawar remarked “social development values and ideas need to be applied to proactively deal with the consequences of the fifth industrial revolution so that everyone is included in the digitally led development process…Most importantly, we must advocate for creating ways and means to achieve sustainable global peace.”
The conference had three plenary sessions: neoliberalism, technology, and artificial intelligence and its implications to social development (Plenary Session 1); peace and social development (Plenary Session 2); and social solidarity economy, community empowerment, sustainable development (Plenary Session 3).
A total of 74 presentations were delivered at the parallel sessions. Delegates from the Philippines had the highest number of presentations at 41, followed by delegates from India at 19. Representatives from Japan and the USA had four presentations each, and Indonesia and Papua New Guinea delegates delivered two presentations each. Delegates from Thailand and Bangladesh had one presentation each.
Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, senior associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines delivered the conference’s keynote address.
UPD Chancellor Edgardo Carlo L. Vistan II also welcomed the conference participants and guests during the reception dinner at the Atencio-Libunao Hall.
The ICSD Conference was held from Oct. 23 to 24.
